Clean

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how heating oil is bad for the environment, and natural gas is somehow good. For the record, home heating oil and natural gas are both fossil fuels — one is not more “natural” than the other. Home heating oil is made of, well, oil. In recent years, heating oil has been blended with biodiesel (much of which is made up of waste soybean oil) to create a cleaner, domestically produced energy resource that’s virtually sulfur free.

Natural gas, on the other hand, is comprised almost exclusively of methane — an extremely potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane on climate change is 25 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period.”

Modern oil heating systems in well-insulated homes now allow homeowners to achieve the same amount of warmth using 40% less fuel, further reducing emissions while also lowering heating costs. All in all, oil is the better fossil fuel for both your wallet and the world.